BBC News Online: Entertainment

Golden jubilee for the Emmy

The first Emmy was handed out back in January 25, 1949 to Shirley Dinsdale, a 20-year-old ventriloquist who was given the award for outstanding TV personality for her daily Judy Splinters puppet show.

Within the last 50 years the Emmys have celebrated television's magic moments, from the mini-series Roots, which gained an all-time record of 37 nominations back in 1977, to television screen stars such as Harry Belafonte, Fred Astaire and Barbra Streisand.

Last year Britons who won the prestigious awards were actress Dame Diana Rigg, comedienne Tracey Ullman and the production team of Helen Mirren's Prime Suspect 5.

This year a handful of Brits are up for nominations including Jane Seymour for Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman and Jane Leeves as Daphne Moon in Frasier for best supporting actress.

John Cleese and Emma Thompson have also been nominated for guest appearances in American sitcoms and Helen Bonham Carter for supporting actress in a mini-series or movie.

Technology meets the stars

The four hour extravaganza will be broadcast live on America's NBC network.

The format for this year's awards will differ from traditional award ceremonies. The archetypal 'ad-libbing' host has been discarded and instead an army of presenters has been deployed.

Stars scheduled to present the awards range from Frasier star Kelsey Grammar to John Lithgow, Helen Hunt, Whitney Houston and Sigourney Weaver.

In an unprecedented move to celebrate the Emmy's golden jubilee, the network has created an interactive Web page, as an official accompaniment to the award ceremony.

Web enthusiasts will be able to sample live on-scene video and audio Webcasts, engage in chat rooms, view behind-the-scene interviews, take part in trivia quizzes, interactive fan balloting, and real-time awards scoring and more.

If the technology proves all too much for viewers they can sit back and watch clips from the Emmy archives which will punctuate the show to honour and remember past award winners.